The light blue spike in the lower right is the US Civil War (1861-1865), which prompted the introduction of a “temporary” progressive income tax (the light pink blob in the lower left) that was originally supposed to expire in 1866!

The pink blobs on the right are a record of expenditures on the US Indian wars

This is a beautiful rendering of church-going in the US. Interestingly, rather than show non-churchgoers as separate bar, they are relegated to a grey box around the outside.

Here’s a nice example of showing data through proportions.

And here’s proof that men are bigger idiots than women! (of course, they meant what we’d call “mentally ill” these days)

Population charts showing that the “cowboy states” (e.g. Wyoming, Nevada, Montana) were populated by young male foreigners, while Utah had LOTS of children.

This chart is a good example of something that hasn’t changed much in the last couple of centuries – the notion that you should show data just because you have it. For example, Chart 1 below show deaths per month per state. Is this data actionable in any way?

Later charts aren’t nearly as attractive, like these, from the 2000 Census:

Here’s a PowerPoint file with some of the key charts already included: